The president of the Vatican Bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, is being investigated by Italian magistrates for suspected money-laundering, the Italian state television RAI reported.
RAI, citing judicial sources, said the move followed the seizure by Italian treasury police of 23 million euros (£19 million) that had been deposited in a Rome bank account by the Vatican Bank.
The Vatican expressed "bewilderment and amazement" at the legal action, saying its operations were legitimate and documented.
Last autumn Pope Benedict XVI named Gotti Tedeschi, an Italian banker and professor of financial ethics at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, as president of the Vatican Bank, known formally as the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR). The appointment was seen at the time as a move towards greater transparency in the bank's operations.
